Yamaha Moto GP's Fabio Quartararo has sprinkled yet more magic over the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya as he cruised to an inch-perfect victory in the Monster Energy Catalan Grand Prix. The Frenchman put to bed the nightmare of 2021 by easing to his second premier class victory at the venue, cashing in on his closest Championship rivals' despair to extend out his title lead.
Prima Pramac Racing's Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco completed the podium after profiting from a mind-blowing blunder by poleman Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) after the Spaniard celebrated a lap too early and threw away a secure second place.
Quartararo avoided the chaos to hit the front, and quickly began stretching out a lead. By the end of the opening lap, he was nearly a second clear of the rest - nobody was able to live with El Diablo.
Ten laps were completed when Aleix Espargaro was able to finally get the better of Martin. He quickly put daylight between himself and his fellow Spaniard as he set his sights on Quartararo ahead, who by this point in the race had an advantage of 3.3 seconds.
Four laps to go and Aleix was able to dig deep. On the brakes into Turn 1, he squeezed past Martin for a second time as he tried to limit the damage in the title chase. The 32-year-old got the hammer down and stretched out a handful of bike lengths over Martin, with a fifth straight podium seemingly set to go his way.
One lap was left of the Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya with Quartararo en route to a hugely important second win of the season. Then the camera panned to Espargaro slowing down on the run down to the first corner, with what seemed like a technical issue cruelly having robbed him of a home podium. But then he began waving to the crowd, taking in the applause, and it was apparent the Aprilia man had made an unforgivable howler. As he celebrated one lap early, the Prima Pramac duo of Martin and Zarco flew past, then Mir and then Mooney VR46 Racing's Luca Marini before he realised his mistake.
( With inputs from ANI )
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